posted by zjv5002 on August 14, 2012 | 4 comments
I am hazy about the decision-making process that designates certain words as needing quotation marks. I'll give an example from the 08.06 edition of 三联周刊 [interview with Philip Lorca diCorcia where he talks about an photo exhibit titled "A Perfect Life"]当然， 在此完美中， 间或地会出现一些让人明显觉察到的"裂痕"。这只是一个故事而已，无关其他。Are there are general guidelines when determining what gets quotation marks?I'd previously thought that quotations would serve to highlight figures of speech incomprehensible when translated literally to Chinese. This line of thinking shows up in the English translation of Eileen Chang's "Love in a Fallen City":"This was a case of 'trying to steal a chicken with a handful of grain, and losing both the bird and the bait'" In Chang's case, the (overly)direct style of translation is amenable to quotation marks; they indicate the set nature of the phrase. My first example from 三联 and many others I've run across, however, do not appear to me incomprehensible or even particularly taxing to think through. The difference between the appearance of perfection and its absence in actuality could very reasonably be thought of as a break or rift of some kind. SO WHY THE QUOTATION MARKS?Sorry for the long post.
@zjv5002,
There are three general situations when you need to use quotation marks:
1. When you quote someone's line, for instance: 鲁迅曾经说过“横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛。”
2. When you want to emphasize something, as in: 一篇好的散文应该“形散神聚”。
3. When a word has a special meaning. Your example from 三联 is this one.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
carolgreen986 on August 16, 2012 | reply
good translation.
Echo: Are using bold, italics or alternative ways of indicating emphasis used as well? I ran across this article a while back:[http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2011/03/the-shouting-font/]though the trend seems confined to internet speech.carolgreen986: Thanks!